starburst Posted February 15, 2019 Author Share Posted February 15, 2019 On 14/2/2019 at 6:26 AM, Eltosian Kadath said: Part 5 Speed Demons (Chapters 16-19) I did not have time to talk about your chapters yesterday. Ch 16: We approach this chapter in a very similar way.I tackle the west first, sending Elise and high-Res units or magicians NW, and bulkier units and Azura SW. The NW team would then go far west and lure Mages and the Sorcerer, while the bulkier SW team splits in two: some lure one Mage and Fighters, others tackle the reinforcements coming from the east. Then the whole party goes NE and then SE, leaving the eastern-most Soldier last, making over 6.000 G. If I have two bow users, Shura is spared because it is the only way to access a second Killer Bow before Ch 21 (and an extra Mend is a 1.000 G save.) Guard Stance makes it easier because it is possible to face the Berserkers or the Sorcerer with a full guarding-bar. And having my whole party already promoted gave me more freedom, for no unpromoted enemy can deal mortal damage. Ch 17: And we play this in an entirely different way. He he he. I have been playing this the same way since I got the game: use the closest DV, send the party in an inverse-C direction, grab the Gold, and then go back for Kotaro. It implies that Kamikaizo will die in the early turns. Attack the SE Automatons by Turn 2, then deactivate the tramp and block the SE bottleneck with two bulky 1-2 range units by Turn 4. The maths depend on your units, but hold the position one or two turns, then heal or switch to the Guard Stance units. As a distraction, position a Sniper, Master Ninja or Sorcerer with Calamity Gate right above the bottleneck, relying on Elise's aura. They can only be attacked by one enemy at a time. If the Sniper goes crazy and crits more than they can handle, make them retreat/ switch with Azura. The two or three turns holding the SE position are the core of the chapter, and the only thrilling moments before facing Kotaro. Everything in between is super slow paced, and reinforcements appear at your will. For example, position everyone separated and very close to the eastern exit, and then put a unit in range (through the wall) of the NE Ninjas. Their movement triggers reinforcements right out of the eastern exit, and some others far north and far west. Since you just cornered the eastern reinforcements, you have more than enough power to kill them all in one phase using Attack Stance. Another one: when the Sword Masters in the centre move, Ninjas will come from the south. So, just send south Odin or Ophelia with Calamity Gate whenever you are ready to bait the SM's. At the end, take your time and do the maths to kill Kotaro's guards in a single phase, or you will regret it. They move only after you enter their room or attack any of them. Kotaro himself is always tricky, but Dark Mage's -20 Avoid skill and a Sniper do wonders. If it were not for the Gold, one could complete this map many turns earlier (there is a 2-turn strategy, in fact), without going west. As I want the Gold, I use this map to let some units learn their L25 skills or skills in an alternate class. The map is methodical but not difficult.Ch 18: Another approach similar to yours, but I send everyone west and bait all Paladins before facing the General Twins.All ten units start in the west, then bait the Generals wielding an Armour Slayer, kill them all in Attack Stance and bait the Paladin with a unit equipped with a Beast Killer. Leave two units blocking the western stairs and then go west of the General Twins and bait the Paladins and BK. Go a bit south and bait the south-eastern Paladins. Now deal with the Paladin reinforcements coming from the east. It is all rinse and repeat. Beast Killer and Hunter's Knife/ Bow are your best friends here. Lightning is your best bet against the Twins, and since all of your physical units should be able to sustain one hit from them, deal some physical damage and then use Lightning. The Twins should be gone by Turn 6. The upper room varies from Hard to Lunatic, mainly because of Seal Resistance and an extra Hero, which make it very hard to tank the east side with a high-Resistance unit. So, I bait the closest Sorcerers and Hero on the east, but then face the western Heroes and Maid. Now bait the remaining Sorcerers and send a Lock Touch unit to grab the NE chest. I then kill the paired Heroes through the wall, block as many stairs as possible and Freeze/ block the paired Sorcerers. It ends on the next phase. Ch 19: We play this very differently, but I would never dare to face this without Guard Stance. I admire you. My approach is all about tonics and a Cross-formation in Guard Stance.Give Skill tonics to your whole attacking units. I select the four bulkier units, give them lots of tonics (even Luck ones) and assign them a Guard Stance companion. These four pairs will make a Cross-formation with Elise paired-up with Azura in the centre, to take advantage of Elise's aura. The four front-liners of the Cross do not need to be super bulky. On my current compaign they were Hero Silas, Paladin Sophie, Sniper Effie and Noble Cornflakes; and the pair-ups were Sorcerers Ophelia and Odin, Sniper Mozu and MN Kaze. None of which give Defence bonuses! So, do not be scared if you do not have Generals or Wyvern Lords. I move the Cross-formation north and bait the closest group of foxes. Then kill one or two foxes while maintaining the Cross-formation, heal and wait for more foxes. When the second group of foxes comes from the north, move the Cross so that only some of them can hit your units. Heal and move the Cross again. Only when you are sure that you can kill all remaining foxes in one phase, break the Cross and attack. The attack range of foxes coming from the south-west is a descending slope, thus, put one or two pairs inside the range, put Elise next to them and separate all others. After the foxes attack, use Attack Stance and kill them all. Now go to the southern bridge. Separate all of your units and move them very close to the river. Time the Statue effect and put one pair in range of two or three foxes, making the whole pack move and end their turn vulnerable. Then charge with all your units in Attack Stance and kill all or as many foxes as possible across the bridge. Then comes the western group of foxes. Cross-formation again; bait, move, heal. Repeat. Kaden has 30 Speed, so, make sure to face him with a unit with at least 26 Speed after bonuses. Time the attack and bait him when he moves alone, or with a full guarding-bar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eltosian Kadath Posted February 20, 2019 Share Posted February 20, 2019 On 2/15/2019 at 10:13 AM, starburst said: I have been playing this the same way since I got the game: use the closest DV, send the party in an inverse-C direction, grab the Gold, and then go back for Kotaro. It implies that Kamikaizo will die in the early turns. I should try this approach at some point; I just got into the habit of thinking of the path shown in the chapter preview as the way that map should be handled, with the DVs mostly being used for shenanigans. On 2/15/2019 at 10:13 AM, starburst said: The two or three turns holding the SE position are the core of the chapter, and the only thrilling moments before facing Kotaro. Everything in between is super slow paced, and reinforcements appear at your will. For example, position everyone separated and very close to the eastern exit, and then put a unit in range (through the wall) of the NE Ninjas. Their movement triggers reinforcements right out of the eastern exit, and some others far north and far west. Since you just cornered the eastern reinforcements, you have more than enough power to kill them all in one phase using Attack Stance. Another one: when the Sword Masters in the centre move, Ninjas will come from the south. So, just send south Odin or Ophelia with Calamity Gate whenever you are ready to bait the SM's. I find it interesting that despite the very different approach, you also find that securing the next major area outside the starting one (even if our different approaches made them completely different areas) is the key to this map (before Kotaro). Also a reminder that I should really look up reinforcements while playing as I clearly do not remember them well enough. Â On 2/15/2019 at 10:13 AM, starburst said: Give Skill tonics to your whole attacking units. I select the four bulkier units, give them lots of tonics (even Luck ones) and assign them a Guard Stance companion. These four pairs will make a Cross-formation with Elise paired-up with Azura in the centre, to take advantage of Elise's aura. The four front-liners of the Cross do not need to be super bulky. On my current compaign they were Hero Silas, Paladin Sophie, Sniper Effie and Noble Cornflakes; and the pair-ups were Sorcerers Ophelia and Odin, Sniper Mozu and MN Kaze. None of which give Defence bonuses! So, do not be scared if you do not have Generals or Wyvern Lords. I move the Cross-formation north and bait the closest group of foxes. Then kill one or two foxes while maintaining the Cross-formation, heal and wait for more foxes. When the second group of foxes comes from the north, move the Cross so that only some of them can hit your units. Heal and move the Cross again. Only when you are sure that you can kill all remaining foxes in one phase, break the Cross and attack. The attack range of foxes coming from the south-west is a descending slope, thus, put one or two pairs inside the range, put Elise next to them and separate all others. After the foxes attack, use Attack Stance and kill them all. Now go to the southern bridge. Separate all of your units and move them very close to the river. Time the Statue effect and put one pair in range of two or three foxes, making the whole pack move and end their turn vulnerable. Then charge with all your units in Attack Stance and kill all or as many foxes as possible across the bridge. Then comes the western group of foxes. Cross-formation again; bait, move, heal. Repeat. Kaden has 30 Speed, so, make sure to face him with a unit with at least 26 Speed after bonuses. Time the attack and bait him when he moves alone, or with a full guarding-bar. This is a solid strategy that you have described here, that I will probably use on less restrictive play-throughs. Also a reminder that I should remember to use tonics more, as skill tonics (plus possibly luck tonics) all around would have reduced the number of misses a bit. I didn't find the time to finish anything other than invasion 2 during the convention weekend, so it may be a bit before I have anything to report on my run, although I think I have decided to stick with Beruka. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starburst Posted February 20, 2019 Author Share Posted February 20, 2019 (edited) 17 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said: I find it interesting that despite the very different approach, you also find that securing the next major area outside the starting one (even if our different approaches made them completely different areas) is the key to this map (before Kotaro). Also a reminder that I should really look up reinforcements while playing as I clearly do not remember them well enough. I think that another difference between our approaches to Chapter 17 is the number of enemies on each section. If one takes on the SE group first, one has already dealt with, like, half of the map. It is all slow paced afterwards.  17 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said: This is a solid strategy that you have described here, that I will probably use on less restrictive play-throughs. Also a reminder that I should remember to use tonics more, as skill tonics (plus possibly luck tonics) all around would have reduced the number of misses a bit. If my memory serves me well, I first used the cross-formation for Chapter 19 while playing an all-girls run, where almost everyone was on a horse. I was afraid of Beast Bane and did not have a unit capable of tanking the foxes (to solo-cheese.) I thus decided to let all girls take as many vitamins as possible, rely on Elise's aura, and hope for the best. Surprisingly, even Mechanist Anna could hold a position (she dodges more than a Sword Master, but still.) And always use tonics, they let a unit meet the power-, speed- and defence thresholds, and make a difference in hit, crit and avoid.On my current run, the Sniper chain at the beginning of Ch 23 was impossible until I used a Luck tonic. Sniper Effie and her Guard Stance were powerful- and fast enough to kill them all, but if she landed a critical hit and prevented the filling of the Guard Bar, she would require at least one dodge. Being a Sniper, she critted just because and died every time. But with a Luck tonic (and she already has high Luck), Effie dodged at least once in three replays, which was enough for me to rule it as a valid strategy. He he.  17 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said: I didn't find the time to finish anything other than invasion 2 during the convention weekend, so it may be a bit before I have anything to report on my run, although I think I have decided to stick with Beruka. No worries, I am already on Endgame. Stuck on Endgame, actually. He he. Ch 27 is done by by turn 5, but I cannot even reach half of the map in Endgame. It might not be possible with these ten units. And I should probably have captured Rally Man to mitigate the annoying Enfeeble spam, or a sexy Pegasus with Pass, but I wanted to stick to my team. I must confess that in a couple of Lunatic campaigns, I declared them as 'complete' after Ch 27, precisely because of how tricky Endgame is. Anyway, keep us posted of your progress. In the meantime I will continue my S-rank campaign of Advance Wars 2. He he. Edited February 20, 2019 by starburst Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eltosian Kadath Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 On 2/20/2019 at 5:58 AM, starburst said: Anyway, keep us posted of your progress. In the meantime I will continue my S-rank campaign of Advance Wars 2. He he. I am fiddling with chapter 23 now.. Part 6: Operation Double Dance (Invasion 2, Chapter 20-22) Spoiler Invasion 2 - This took a few tries due to my castle design, but once I redesigned with defense in mind I beat it on the next try. The trick was to put enough spawn points towards the east and west to wipe out the forces there first turn, and then use the wind tribe style combined with the indestructible building to limit the ways enemies from the south can approach. The only other major things of note is that I having Corrin change over to Kinshi knight, and Beruka changing over to berserker for the strength rally. My plan is to get Beruka the skill and change back before the stairway, and for Corrin to go change back just after. Chapter 20 - Sigh. Dealing with the winds is very tedious. Its not hard to compensate for it, but doing so tend to make things take 3-6 time longer than it should, so I had a 69 turn clear here. The opening was to have Ophelia catch a ride with Niles to bait the Onmyoji to the west, with Felicia catching a ride with Elise to be there to help next turn, while the rest of my troops wait for the winds to turn before doing the same to the spearmen to the east. Next turrn the western group finishes off the onmyoji while carefully positioning themselves so the wind will push them onto a path instead of the next platform, and the eastern group finally baits in the spearmen with Beruka. Next turn Ophelia and Felicia wait before one column of wind, while Elise and Niles pair-up to get the move to seperate just past that wind column and back onto the starting platform to deal with the reinforcements about to show up, while the western group continues to battle the spearmen. By next turn the spearmen are gone, while Niles, Elise, Ophelia, Corrin and a returning Peri deal with the starting platform reinforcements, with about a turn to spare before the approaching flyers. Next turn I bait the pegasi towards that platform just north of the starting platform that the wind pushed many of my troops towards with Effie. Next turn while this is the worst wind turn, that greatly limit the number of safe spaces to attack from, with two bows I wipe them out with ease. From here on things get less precise due to how obnoxious it is to set up anything in the central portion of the map while contending with the winds. The Onmyoji reinforcements that show up on the south western platform are dispatched by the same four that dealt with the last group of Onmyoji there, with Niles rushing back to help with the paired-up kinshi knight/spearmen that are about to clash near the same place I baited the last flyers. I then use the corner of one path to get into a range battle with onmyoji on the corner of another path, and once both are dead I draw the spearman that was with them into the northern portion of that platform just north of the starting area. I then setup all the defensive buffs I can on Effie (defense rally+lily poise+supportive+axe) to draw out the Kinshi knights and bolt naginata on the central platform to the west without drawing the physical naginata wielders, and after wiping them out I bait out the physical ones with someone less defensive. Next I grab the eastern chest and draw in the mages that are on the same section, taking care that everyone there is adjacent to someone else just in case someone gets frozen on a bad wind turn they can pair-up, get repositioned and separated in a space where the wind won't ruin everything (plus avoiding the lunger on Fuga's platform). After that I have my only dragon vein use to drag the Falcon knights that sit around Hayato out of position to deal with them before he can hex anyone. Silas gets hexed after their deaths and I bait out the other charges with Azura and Elise. Then I fight over the western chest, and after that start drawing some of the enemies that guard the northern chest. After claiming the Northern chest I finally deal with Hayato and draw the nearest paired spearmen from the last platform before reaching Fuga's. From here I bait out the enfeeble staff and then carefully drawout and kill everything on that platform before entering lunging range. Without any friends to take advantage of the lunge chain, they aren't a problem. Finally I pile everyone onto Fuga's plaform and slay the stationary staff wielder there. Next turn I wipe out the reinforcements that appear in front of everyone's faces. On the turn following I slay Fuga while keeping everyone out of the flier's range. On the last turn I wipe out the flier group and seize. According to plan Beruka reached the level for strength rally , while Corrin still needs less than a level to reach air superiority. Chapter 21 Operation Double Dance - Lets start with the key preps: I buy all the blessed weapons I can use, I buy a lightning for Elise, I give the party a defense and magic meal, I give Elise an HP and defense tonic, and I give Ophelia a magic tonic. The blessed weapons are a bit of a double edged sword as they lets units easily get/setup kills on player phase, but the defense drop and enemy passive damage are a little too high to comfortably enemy phase with them. The tonic plus meal should be enough that Elise can survive one of the stoneborn hits if she had to (although in retrospect this just made me feel more comfortable about the chapter, as further measures would be needed to tank a massive rocks, and savage blow's area effect is usually enough to push her out of survivability), Ophelia should be able to one-shot a stoneborn with lightning, and Elise can one-shot two a turn if danced even with its debuffs. First turn is mostly spent ensuring Elise hits C rank magic, by having her kill one of the faceless to southwest (with Felicia attack stance), then assist Peri and Beruka in killing the other, then getting danced (after Silas shelters Felicia and then gets separated by Corrin) to then get the kill on the one on the path forward (with an Effie that waited in its face to tank the faceless to come and give her the attack stance) hitting C rank exactly. Turn two Corrin flies to the first dragon vein, and then I push in to kill the first two stoneborns, and kill/chip whatever faceless I can reach. Turn 3 is all about cleaning up the enemy and positioning without angering the next layer of stoneborn. The big things are most of my group head east while Silas, Ophelia and Felicia getting ready to draw the western most stoneborn on the third layer in the opposite direction. Turn 4 has some very careful positioning as Effie chokes this strange point where a single piece of rubble in one corner, and cliff side on the other keeps the faceless from passing her (although she has to tank 2 with their savage blows), the space the stoneborn in the center (north of her) would use to attack her is a cliff tile, with Corrin next to her for the supportive boost, and to bait that central stoneborn into range (the eastern stoneborn's attack could attack either Effie or Corrin) both with defense(+strength) rally and Corrin with the extra lilypoise demoiselle boost. That was an uncomfortably close turn, but now Corrin can trigger the next dragon vein, and Ophelia can kill the western stoneborn, while Elise with a dance can kill the other two on this layer with everyone else clearing the way and getting as many kills and chip as can safely be done. The next couple turns are taken a bit slowly as we work on clearing out the faceless without drawing the massive rocks ahead, healing up, and dealing with the pileup on the path north. Also of note I use a flier to drag my dancer close enough to assist Ophelia in getting the kill on the western most stoneborn of the next layer without anger any of the others (although in retrospect that was probably more trouble than it was worth, as I ended up simply avoiding its and the next most western ones range anyway) The next push comes when the pursuit from the south are just over a turn from trapping me in a vise, but at that point enough of the reinforcements north are out of the way that setting up the next round of tanking and stoneborn baiting is fairly textbook. Once again the next dragon vein is activated, Ophelia and Elise wipe the two nearest stoneborn, and faceless are slaughtered. The turn after I make the fateful decision to head north and baiting in that northeastern most stoneborn, and after that three face spawn in range to slaughter anyone that could attack the stoneborn. I am in a bit of a pickle as pulling back would bog me down with reinforcements, the only dragon vein even in dancing range is adjacent to the boss, and the stoneborn near the boss can only be killed with a dance, and with the 3 extra troops able to attack anyone that threatened the stoneborn and two faceless still between me and the exit, it becomes clear that the only way out of this mess is with a double dance. To make sure my positioning is just right for this I sketch out the scene on paper, as there are 4 big this that have to occur: 1. Corrin has to be danced to activate the dragon vein adjacent to the boss 2. To keep him alive the second stoneborn has to die which requires Elise be danced 3. The two faceless and stoneborn on the path north have to die to allow 4. Niles to use his max movement to kill the faceless that spawned adjacent to the dragon vein to keep Corrin alive. So Felicia starts by killing the nearest faceless (with Effie attack stance), Beruka takes its place and lunges the stoneborn past the other faceless with a handaxe, to be in range of Ophelia killing it, Corrin then moves to the space it occupied, Azura goes just behind dances, Corrin activates the Dragon vein, Silas enters the space Corrin was just in and shelters Azura, Effie chips the second faceless, Elise kills that same faceless in melee with an Effie attack stance, Peri then transfers and switches to Azura to dance Elise who then lightnings the other stoneborn, and finally Niles kills the new faceless with a blessed bow. Corrin takes a hit from the boss, and Niles takes a hit from one of the other faceless that spawned (with an attack stance) and while both are hurting I am out of the woods. Next turn I finish off the boss and surviving reinforcements, and for once have I the common sense to just leave the turn after instead of going after the 5 enemies on the map that still give out xp. I am very glad I had Corrin as a Kinshi Knight on this chapter, as his ability to reach dragon veins (and being the least useful unit able to activate them) was absolutely vital to survival. Chapter 22 - This took a bit of finagling to first figure out which units should be in which area, and how I can survive the deadly reinforcement turns. The army of the west has Corrin, Azura, Effie, Silas, and Felicia; The army of the east has Ophelia, Beruka, Peri, Niles, and Elise. I start by drawing and killing everything I can from range across the walls on both sides. I intentionally ignore the first dragon vein in the east to trivialize one of the earlier reinforcement groups later, so western army heads heads towards the first dragon vein on their side the long way around (clearing out the initial troop on their side excluding Hana's group along the way). Corrin finally gets air superiority (but I keep camaraderie on there for now), and immediately switches back to Nohr Noble. After the Western army activates its dragon vein, the eastern army finishes the automaton that had no range attacks, before preparing to trigger the first location based reinforcement. I send Beruka and Peri around the wall towards the second Dragon vein, slaying the first automaton in there, while the rest wait for the mages to spawn. After the mages spawn, my magic focused group takes care of them with some ease, while the other automaton dies. I then send Beruka and Peri back to regroup (and avoid the just spawned in Pegasi), and use Ophelia to convince the bolt naginata to stay on the other side of the wall this turn (as she is the only one with resistance low enough to tempt her). Next turn I slay the other Pegasi and break the pair-up that had a bolt naginata from range, the turn following the last Pegasus dies, and just after I activate the Dragon vein that releases Hana. To tank Hana (plus attack stance), I have Corrin equip the original dragon stone, with a dance boost to keep him from being doubled despite the reduced speed, and taking advantage of the devoted partner demoiselle boost, all on this one square choke point. If she triggered Rend Heaven then Corrin is going to need to be healed (by vulnerary if Felicia's attack and Corrin's attacks stance both hit this turn, or by a physic if Corrin needs to finish her as his action), but if she didn't then the healing from healing descant and camaraderie can suffice, as Azura needs to dance Felicia out of there, and Corrin needs to equip the Dragon stone + to tank that choke point for another turn. Next turn I should be able to finish off Hana's goons, although I might set off the next round of area based reinforcements. These are easy to deal with, Corrin with the dragon stone + can bottle up the first set while everyone else gets into position to wipe out the rest when they spawn, and after that the first group is easily dispatched. Next Corrin activates the Dragon vein releasing Subaki (and starts drawing out Sakura's staff uses. To deal with Subaki's mixed attacking crew I first freeze staff the automaton (he is one space away from reaching, and the physical attack stance he gives is just a little to hard to deal with otherwise) then use Niles (with Defense rally + lily poise and demoiselle boost) to tank from the nearest point they will attack. The first Onmyoji tends to kill itself on Elise while the second tends to take a free hit on Niles while blocking Subaki from doing anything. Nile's bow ends Subaki, the leftover Onmyoji and automaton are easy to deal with after. Next I work on the slow process of baiting out Sakura's staff and killing all the Mechanists I can without activating the final round of reinforcements. By the end of this there are 5 enemies remaining, an Oni on the otherside of a wall in the west, the pair of machanists maning a tower in the east, Sakura, and Yukimura. I position the western army in a position to alpha strike the blacksmiths that spawn as far south as possible, while the eastern army uses the forts the Onmyoji are about to spawn as a staging area to take down the mechanists at the tower, and trigger the final round of reinforcements. I start off with a bit of luck as Ophelia's Calamity gate crits to break the mechaists guard stance without taking some retaliation, while Beruka and Peri finish off the remaining mechanist with her attack stance, letting Elise heal up the only injured character.When the first round of reinforcements spawn in the west there is a miss so one of the blacksmiths survive, alone and blocked off from hitting Azura so that isn't a problem. In the east Niles and Elise take out the paired Onmyoji, while blocking their only escape route and ensuring they will kill themselves enemy phase. The with the next round of reinforcements arriving things get a little complicated, in the west I use Silas to bait one set of mechanists into attacking him from their spawn point this turn as the last blacksmith is dealt with and Corrin sits in the choke point ready to dragon tank with demoiselle. In the east things are a bit more dramatic, as Niles blocks the Falcon knights with resistance & defense rally plus demoiselle. In the west things bog down until there is only one range 1-2 unit left as Corrin chokes the point with the dragon tank, he does what damage he can, and gets healed (with Felicia dancing away to safety) as needed. The next round in the east the falcon pair with bolt naginata are wiped out, but there is a bit of a complication as one of the Oni chieftain/Onmyoji pair have broken out of Sakura's room and are threatening them from the west, so I am careful to bait them into a range battle and hold off the remaining Falcon knight pair with Peri. Next turn in the east Beruka and then Niles finish off the Falcon knight pair, while the rest deal with the first Oni Cheiften/Onmyoji pair, while Peri keeps the one that followed the turn after from being able to melee any of the squishy units that killed the first. The next turn in the east the other Oni Cheiften/Onmyoji pair is finished off, and with a Strenth rally Niles prepares for a sniper duel from across a wall from the automaton coming up. Once the automaton pair with bows is dealt with the rest aren't so bad. At some point in the west the only 1-2 range enemy will be a single pair of machanist, and that is the cue for all the other troops there to pull out there range weapons and turn the space in front of Corrin into death. Once this starts it is not long before the west is won, and alone both Sakura and Yukimura are not long for this world.  Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starburst Posted February 26, 2019 Author Share Posted February 26, 2019 (edited) On 25/2/2019 at 11:14 AM, Eltosian Kadath said: Part 6: Operation Double Dance (Invasion 2, Chapter 20-22) I only play Invasion 1 before Ch 9, and just for the Support Points. I skip the other two. The Merchants from I-2 are annoying as fuck, and I think that I have only played I-3 once in my life. He he. But you are right about the Castle’s style and building’s disposition being key. Ch 20: Just like in Ch 17, inverse-C direction again! With ten units, survival in this map rests on two opposites: you want that your units stick together to face the winds, at the same time that you need as many unpaired units as possible to maximise your power output through Attack Stance. I liked reading how you dealt with the pesky fliers and unbearable Hayato. Nice power combos, specially in the centre. Man, I am still surprised how much your units can endure without Guard Stance. I also think that it took you many turns because you were ‘surviving’ the winds instead of using them to regroup. I prefer going through the northern limit precisely to care only about the currents going south. And when I need to go centre, I let the wind move everyone at once.I cannot check the credits log yet, but I ‘completed’ it in 23 turns, grabbing all chests. I remember checking the turn number after I grabbed the last chest but before seizing the throne (there were no enemies on the way, my 'Roy' was simply crossing the map.) Since my recent logs on Hard were 22, 21 and 22 turns after seizing, doing 23 +2/3 on Lunatic seems consistent. My first turns usually go like this:T1: Send a pair to face the Lancers on the SE platform, and move everyone else into the east wind current to be moved north.T2: Kill the Lancers, move everyone back into the wind closest to this platform, unpair and prepare to be moved to the CE platform.T3: Kill the Lancers and Kinshis on the CE platform and let the wind move everyone north once again, right next to the eastern chest but below Fuga’s VIP terrace.T4: Move a Ninja or an Adventurer to the bridge that is close to the chest, give it rallies, bonuses and auras and let it bait the magicians and fliers to the left. Unpair everyone else.T5: Kill whatever is alive outside the Lunge range and let the wind move everyone north into Fuga’s Playboy penthouse (seriously, a naked old guy surrounded by young Maidens?)T6: Kill the party Maidens, send a strong pair to block the bridge to the west on the Party Roof, and make a deal with Pimp Fuga (he is wielding a lance, so Calamity Gate/ Sniper/ Berserker.) The mission could end here, but we want the treasures and, more importantly, we want to level-up the spell casters and Snipers/ Berserkers, so that they can one-round Stoneborns and Faceless. Edited February 26, 2019 by starburst Formatting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eltosian Kadath Posted February 26, 2019 Share Posted February 26, 2019 1 hour ago, starburst said: And I think that it took you many turns because you were ‘surviving’ the winds instead of using them to regroup. That is spot on. Honestly there are just enough oddities that I only kinda understand with regard to the wind, that I find it hard to incorporate into an aggressive strategy, and the slower approach I took consistently avoids the edge cases that I am uncertain of. I should try to use the winds more aggressively next time, as your approach sounds far less tedious.  1 hour ago, starburst said: Fuga’s Playboy penthouse (seriously, a naked old guy surrounded by young Maidens?) Ha, that's a head canon that will stick with me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starburst Posted February 26, 2019 Author Share Posted February 26, 2019 18 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said: That is spot on. Honestly there are just enough oddities that I only kinda understand with regard to the wind, that I find it hard to incorporate into an aggressive strategy, and the slower approach I took consistently avoids the edge cases that I am uncertain of. I should try to use the winds more aggressively next time, as your approach sounds far less tedious. While those first turns of Ch 20 are perfectly reproducible, I must tell you that the next two or three turns are tricky. They include an almost unavoidable party split (the first time that south currents are next to north ones), and the threat of a flying gang and some Lancers on the roof, and of Japan-mages and parrot-faces right below. Depending on how split your units end, you might need to use a DV or retreat on a defensive formation. This is also why I paid attention to how you dealt with the fliers from the centre. Â 18 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said: Ha, that's a head canon that will stick with me. Pimp Fuga is a dog, man. A filthy dog. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshcja Posted February 27, 2019 Share Posted February 27, 2019 For 20 you can attack stance down the lancers to the east, the mages to the west, and then stall for the all-up wave to grab rescue, 10k, and end the map. Glad to see you finally rep laced that filthy S avatar Starburst. People over 50 have the most sex yo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starburst Posted February 27, 2019 Author Share Posted February 27, 2019 On 25/2/2019 at 11:14 AM, Eltosian Kadath said: Part 6: Operation Double Dance (Invasion 2, Chapter 20-22) Ch 21 is the one chapter that gives me goose bumps. When I was reading your chronicle, I identified with you in various moments. I too experienced situations where various conditions had to be met to advance, and not because of a previous bad move, but because it was the only way for my party to keep going forward. I believe that first impressions define our further interactions, and that is why many people who 'hate' Ch 17 or 19 may actually suffer the imprints of their first negative experiences. Conversely, I think that my opinion about these chapters has never been negative precisely because I was lucky on my first tries. But Ch 21, God, it felt impossible on my first tries. I found it more difficult than any other map, including Endgame. And now, after numerous completed campaigns, I still celebrate when I beat it. It is a thrilling experience every single time. Flight is the decisive variable when planning the approach to this map, but my parties seldom include various fliers. And the narrowness of the path heavily restrains the movement of infantry and cavalry. My party comprised eight infantry units and two horses (Pal Sophie and Str Elise), so it was going to be tricky. Some differences in our preparations: - You focus on Blessed Weapons; I, on Killer ones. Since the Faceless and Stoneborn have zero Luck, this is one of those rare occasions when even Elise and her terrible Skill can land critical hits, and it is Disneyland for Berserkers! Whenever a unit cannot one-hit an enemy on this map, I take my chances with a Killer weapon. I win the bet (way) more often than not, and that is why Odin, Ophelia and Snipers are also outstanding here. - You forgot Skill and Luck tonics! Their influence might be less direct, but for 150 G a piece, I have faith. I cannot afford misses here, and every chance of landing a crit or dodging an attack has a huge impact on the run. Only Azura should pass an anti-doping test, mate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eltosian Kadath Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 22 hours ago, starburst said: Flight is the decisive variable when planning the approach to this map, but my parties seldom include various fliers. And the narrowness of the path heavily restrains the movement of infantry and cavalry. My party comprised eight infantry units and two horses (Pal Sophie and Str Elise), so it was going to be tricky. Going through the whole game without any flyer support is impressive, having even one flyer opens up so many interesting options. 21 hours ago, starburst said: - You focus on Blessed Weapons; I, on Killer ones. Since the Faceless and Stoneborn have zero Luck, this is one of those rare occasions when even Elise and her terrible Skill can land critical hits, and it is Disneyland for Berserkers! Whenever a unit cannot one-hit an enemy on this map, I take my chances with a Killer weapon. I win the bet (way) more often than not, and that is why Odin, Ophelia and Snipers are also outstanding here. Killer weapons are a lot more generally useful, so grabbing the blessed weapons may be a bit short sighted, but they did make that chapter easier. Although there lack of crit dodge is interesting to note. 21 hours ago, starburst said: - You forgot Skill and Luck tonics! Their influence might be less direct, but for 150 G a piece, I have faith. I cannot afford misses here, and every chance of landing a crit or dodging an attack has a huge impact on the run. Only Azura should pass an anti-doping test, mate. For this chapter the only accuracy issues that tended to crop were from enemy weapon breakers, so it didn't feel necessary, but with your focus on criticals for this chapter those were probably vital. A couple of Luck and Skill tonics have been incorporated into my Ch23 preps, although I am perhaps too conservative with my tonic use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow Mir Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 On 2/26/2019 at 8:56 PM, starburst said: Ch 21 is the one chapter that gives me goose bumps. When I was reading your chronicle, I identified with you in various moments. I too experienced situations where various conditions had to be met to advance, and not because of a previous bad move, but because it was the only way for my party to keep going forward. I believe that first impressions define our further interactions, and that is why many people who 'hate' Ch 17 or 19 may actually suffer the imprints of their first negative experiences. Conversely, I think that my opinion about these chapters has never been negative precisely because I was lucky on my first tries. But Ch 21, God, it felt impossible on my first tries. I found it more difficult than any other map, including Endgame. And now, after numerous completed campaigns, I still celebrate when I beat it. It is a thrilling experience every single time. Flight is the decisive variable when planning the approach to this map, but my parties seldom include various fliers. And the narrowness of the path heavily restrains the movement of infantry and cavalry. My party comprised eight infantry units and two horses (Pal Sophie and Str Elise), so it was going to be tricky. Some differences in our preparations: - You focus on Blessed Weapons; I, on Killer ones. Since the Faceless and Stoneborn have zero Luck, this is one of those rare occasions when even Elise and her terrible Skill can land critical hits, and it is Disneyland for Berserkers! Whenever a unit cannot one-hit an enemy on this map, I take my chances with a Killer weapon. I win the bet (way) more often than not, and that is why Odin, Ophelia and Snipers are also outstanding here. - You forgot Skill and Luck tonics! Their influence might be less direct, but for 150 G a piece, I have faith. I cannot afford misses here, and every chance of landing a crit or dodging an attack has a huge impact on the run. Only Azura should pass an anti-doping test, mate. On that note, chapter 21 is one of the few chapters where I sometimes feel I'm better off not using Azura - the Stoneborn being around means that she's a liability since she could possibly get one-shotted. That's not something I want to risk. Other than that, I don't really have much else to say about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starburst Posted March 1, 2019 Author Share Posted March 1, 2019 On 26/2/2019 at 10:57 PM, joshcja said: For 20 you can attack stance down the lancers to the east, the mages to the west, and then stall for the all-up wave to grab rescue, 10k, and end the map. Glad to see you finally rep laced that filthy S avatar Starburst.People over 50 have the most sex yo. Do you think that splitting a 10-units party may have enough power to pull it off? I guess that an anti-magic team should go west and a physical one, east. And I would have to study the winds and positioning. A side effect is that my mages would need to reach their thresholds in Ch 16-18, for they have limited use in Ch 19, and Ch 20 would now be short. Hmm... I will try it on my new campaign (all-girls, still before Ch 10.) While no one might have got it, the default icon coincidentally looked just like a Starburst candy. Sweet! People over 50 grand have the most sex. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starburst Posted March 1, 2019 Author Share Posted March 1, 2019 (edited) On 27/2/2019 at 11:10 PM, Eltosian Kadath said: Going through the whole game without any flyer support is impressive, having even one flyer opens up so many interesting options. I am pretty sure that I have played more campaigns without fliers than with them. Specially since my Camilla-ban was imposed. And my disliking of Beruka and feeling uncomfortable with Percy had their share on this. Hmm... I think that, with the only exception of Elise, none of the units which I like have natural access to flight. Wait! Mozu has and gives Kinshi... Then the problem is just me.  On 27/2/2019 at 11:10 PM, Eltosian Kadath said: Killer weapons are a lot more generally useful, so grabbing the blessed weapons may be a bit short sighted, but they did make that chapter easier. Although there lack of crit dodge is interesting to note. For this chapter the only accuracy issues that tended to crop were from enemy weapon breakers, so it didn't feel necessary, but with your focus on criticals for this chapter those were probably vital. A couple of Luck and Skill tonics have been incorporated into my Ch23 preps, although I am perhaps too conservative with my tonic use. I love critical hits, mate. I do. Mjölnir and Killer Bow are always bought as soon as they are available. Ironically, Berserkers make Killer Axes somewhat redundant, and these usually end in the hands of a Hero. I also appreciate Skill, do not ignore Luck, and like crit bonuses; thus, it is a sum of factors. On Ch 21 in particular, remember that Lightning and Dragon Stone Plus reduce Magic and Skill after each use, and I count on them to kill Stoneborn and one-hit Faceless. In addition to HP and Def tonics for my spell casters, I also give them Luck and Speed ones to increase their Avoid. For them, a single dodge already saves more money than the gold spent on tonics. So, partly faith, partly real. Like the Silverhawks. And I invest like 10.000 G on tonics for Endgame. There are more substances circulating than in an electronic party. Edited March 1, 2019 by starburst Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshcja Posted March 1, 2019 Share Posted March 1, 2019 6 hours ago, starburst said: Do you think that splitting a 10-units party may have enough power to pull it off? I guess that an anti-magic team should go west and a physical one, east. And I would have to study the winds and positioning. A side effect is that my mages would need to reach their thresholds in Ch 16-18, for they have limited use in Ch 19, and Ch 20 would now be short. Hmm... I will try it on my new campaign (all-girls, still before Ch 10.) While no one might have got it, the default icon coincidentally looked just like a Starburst candy. Sweet! People over 50 grand have the most sex. Ophelia with the reverse gate already sends Fuga into Orbit and we only need 2 kills on the north west side. Iseewhatyoudidthere Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starburst Posted March 2, 2019 Author Share Posted March 2, 2019 On 25/2/2019 at 11:14 AM, Eltosian Kadath said: Part 6: Operation Double Dance (Invasion 2, Chapter 20-22) I finally took the time to comment on Chapter 22. You know, I have died various times here after more than half an hour in, when facing 'extra-Experience' enemies. And thus I no longer take my chances and just start the map with all ten units on the west side and march north. Crying Hana is by far the trickiest enemy of the map for me, since she doubles everyone or one-shots those that she cannot double (like Kaze or Nina.) And it does not help that she triggers Rend Heaven like crazy. I either rely on a full Blocking Bar (and thus, in Guard Stance) to face her, or bait her to go on Attack Stance and end next to the fence, and then Lunge her or try to kill her with magic. On this run, however, Sniper Effie could one-hit her after Elise Froze her; but this is not usual. Then I am cautious when I face the magicians and Bolt Pegasi gang, since any of them can kill any of my units in two hits. Having two Snipers, a Beast Killer and a Hunter's Knife helps a lot, but even then the positioning at the end of their Enemy Phase is often odd for a full-on charge. Before defeating Yukimura, I make a detour to defeat Sakura and grab the Spirit Dust. She triggers Miracle often, but fortunately does not hit that hard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eltosian Kadath Posted March 5, 2019 Share Posted March 5, 2019 On 3/2/2019 at 11:32 AM, starburst said:  You know, I have died various times here after more than half an hour in, when facing 'extra-Experience' enemies. And thus I no longer take my chances and just start the map with all ten units on the west side and march north. My first attempt was concentrated all in the west, but when I realized I would have to face Hana's group with debuffing shuriken towers and Sakura's staff making things worse, I decided to split up to use the Dragon Veins next time.  Part 7: Shelter Shenanigans Ch 23-24 Spoiler Chapter 23 Shelter Shenanigans - Lets start with the key preps, we start with a +2 defense +2 speed meal (i forget what random stat was added), Niles gets a defense, luck and skill tonic for survival and accuracy reasons; Elise gets a magic and skill tonic for staff accuracy; and Ophelia gets a skill tonic for higher accuracy & crit. I start by tempting the enemies furthest east across the gap into a range battle, which gets 2 pairs and a solo master-of-arms to spawn and start approaching, and the enemies on the other side of the gap to start charging. I use Beruka to troll the ai's path-finding by having her fly across the gap every now and then to draw some of those enemies back her direction, and kill as many of the physical enemies as can be drawn in this way. Corrin can tank and cripple the master-of-arms, which are then easily dealt with on player phase. Those enemies from across the gap that weren't killed by Beruka are charging towards their own easily arranged player phase deaths. Onve dealt with I have Beruka cart Ophelia across to kill the reachable ballista, as that needs to be gone to survive the next phase. After that first phase is dealt with I prepare to bait in the Lunging archers. With every possible defense boost I can give him (defense rally, supportive, lily poise, demoiselle) as well as the dance stat boosts for good measure, Niles will survive and kill the two archers (with their attack stance, and after a strength rally of their own) that can be drawn in at the edge of their collective range (with 3 hp if everything hits him). This trigger the next round of reinforcements from the forts, and with two of the southern group having headed north to rally the archers, and the others heading south around the lake, I carefully kill the other two archers from outside other enemy ranges, heal up Niles, and prepare the rest of my army to deal with the two heading around the lake next turn. For the next two turn I use similar strategies of ambushing isolated groups outside of other enemy ranges until all of them are gone. I consider ignoring Hinata's crew, but there is one of the Lv 35 skills that will make surviving the climbing of the walls far more manageable, and the xp from Hinata's crew will make the difference. With their reluctance to attack people they cannot overpower, and being far too numerous to alpha strike with only 10, I have to get creative with some shelter shenanigans. I start by noting these 5 spaces that are outside of ballista and Hinata's group's range on the other side of the gap, and I have Beruka ferry Niles, Silas, Peri, Azura and Elise across. With a strength rally Nile's crecent bow will exactly kill the sniper on the end if everything hits and the enemy doesn't crit (hence the skill and luck tonics), then Silas shelters him, Azura dances Silas, Peri shelters Azura, the Elise transfer and switches to Azura to dance Peri, which allows everyone to pull out of enemy ranges safely and separate them. If Niles does have a miss but survives that is still all right as we have pulled back enough that their reluctance to charge kicks in and Elise can finish him next turn. That clears enough space to ferry the rest of the troops over. The strats for dealing with the paired-up spearmen are very similar, but ending it off with a transfer to isolate Azura again to allow Peri to shelter her a second time and a second person to separate her so that everyone can return to the same position to repeat the maneuver next turn to keep the enemy's healing or debuff recovery from further delaying the kills I need, note that while one ally will be at the edge of their attack range they do not charge him. The first one is dealt with by Elise with Calamity gate to finish it in two turns. For the second I use Ophelia having gotten the calamity gate back. Similar sort of idea with Hinata, but I start by having Corrin debuffing him from range. The following turn I use a skill rallied Ophelia with Lightning as my best bet to finish him. Either one needs to crit or both need to hit to finish him. This could take a few passes as even with the tonic the odds overall come out to roughly 25%, and if she has a single hit without crit she will need healing. After Ophelia kills Hinata the rest are willing to charge if anyone enters their range so dragon tanking draws them, and I feed the xp I need to give Ophelia bow breaker. For breaching the walls safely my strategy is to first entrap the enemy blocking the furthest staircase, with the tonics on Elise plus skill rally, dance bonus, Ophelia pair-up and an enfeeble use she can just reach a 91%, and with it entrapped it is easily killed (and I use an attack stance to clear Nile's debuff). The next step is to lure the archers into killing themselves on Ophelia, while staying out of the spearmen's range to give an attack stance, and get as many people that can avoid enemy range onto the wall. I did have one restart here where the dancing speed boost got Ophelia's avoidance high enough that the snipers wouldn't attack her, but as long as she can thin them out that should leave the Basara that was guarding the other stair (thankfully his dual weapon keeps him using magic), the sniper on the ballista, and three of the lunging spearmen that need to dealt with next turn, unfortunately twp of those cannot be hit without entering Oboro's group's range. Once again shelter and dancing lets me pull this off without having to take a hit from Oboro's squad, and I have just enough power in my army to take her group out next turn (with Oboro easily dying to magic at range). Now the approach to Takumi, I first use Corrin dragon tanking to survive the lunging combo with a defense rally and Elises auras to protect him (on the first hit at least), and on the following I start by having Beruka lunge the lunger down to the lower section with a handaxe, and with the one in defense stance more easily reached, and plenty of cavalry to swarm Takumi's tower, they easily fall. I take the safe route for Takumi and use Ophelia's bow breaker to deal with him. Chapter 24 - For my key preps I had a meal that gave +2 speed +2 defense and +1 resistance to ladies, Felicia gets a magic tonic for damage, Elise gets a resistance tonic to further push her staff evasion, Effie gets a skill tonic for accuracy, Beruka gets a speed tonic to make some of the kinshi knights not double her, and a speed tonic on Peri (although as my tactics on this chapter evolved this proved a bit redundant) and swapped camaraderie for air superiority on Corrin. I start by splitting my forces, Felicia, Corrin, Silas, Beruka and Azura will start heading west while Niles, Elise, Peri, Effie and Ophelia head north. First turn Felicia gets danced to block off the Onmyoji on the ssouthern part of the western island, while being out of other enemy ranges; Niles enters the range of the nearest Kinshi Knight to the North with Elise and her Lily Poise, Demoiselle, and Inspiration boost (she picked that up near the end of chapter 23), and Beruka temperarily headed north to give him defense and strength rally. Unfortunately one of the Onmyoji didn't have the accuracy to kill itself on Felicia's Tome breaker, and the Oni on the northern half of the island have blocked her off from escaping the Kinshi knight's range from the corner, so on the first move I take advantage of Hinoka's Dragon Vein use to get Beruka into range of Lunging the Oni blocking her out of position with a handaxe. Then I focus on clearing the way to the Dragon Vein on the northern island, as the Onmyoji there have moved themselves in the way. I have more than enough troops to accomplish this, and thanks to Elise's brand new pair of boots she reaches (and uses) the dragon vein, and while she is in range of a bolt naginata she has enough Resistance that they do not try to attack (no matter how much a physical attack stance would hurt). Next Corrin finishes the Oni right in front of him, Felicia move back to kill one of the Oni, Silas chips the last Oni, Azura dances Beruka to get her out of Kinshi knight range and finish off the last Oni. Beruka takes a hit from the Onmyoji, but her abnormally high resistance keeps that from being a problem. Next turn on the western island first Beruka gets out of the way (and rallys just in case) so that Felicia can bait in the Onmyoji further north while killing that last one, then Corrin easily one rounds a kinshi, and Silas can as well with a Corrin attack stance, and Azura dances to give Corrin the kill on the third, while in the north most of the troops pull back to wait for the flyers to get out of the water, and Niles kills the bolt naginata wielder (with a solid attack stance in case of a double aegis procs) that tries to sneak through the trees. The turn following in the west we ensure the three Oni will die by next turn and make sure either Azura and Corrin are placed right to reach the Dragon Vein next (although just in case make sure Beruka is within 3 spaces of Corrin) while in the north Niles can kill one of flier, and after being traded the Crecent bow, Ophelia can use its attack stance to kill a second with the calamity gate, while Effie slays one with the beast killer (although with less than ideal hit rate), and Peri can use her to get the attack stance kill on the last, with Elise there to either get an attack stance with one of the effective weapons in the event aegis procs or misses leave one alive (or heal otherwise). With the massive movement advantage my group has over the purely flyer threat, the western army should be able to deal with the one approaching from the north and 2 kinshi from the south next turn, while the northern army can bait the one heading from the west while waiting for the rest to clear the waters. Next turn the northern army should have no problem dealing with their last group while the west can bait one into dying to Corrin leaving the rest within kill range next turn. The next flyer don't appear until we lure Setsuna, so we regroup in the center. Next I use Elise to bait out Azama 6 hexs, with the dance boost its accuracy is down to 25%, and I was lucky enough to have him waste all its uses on her. Next I wait till a normal move turn to use Ophelia with all the buffs I can give her to draw in Setsuna, her 2 Onmyoji, and the attack stance Oni (I bait her far enough north that the other 2 Oni don't move) resulting in a crippled Setsuna and her attack stance Oni remaining. Next turn I activate the dragon vein, kill Setsuna, all 3 Oni, use Felicia to block the Onmyoji reinforcements from doing anything and set up to kill all 4 of flyers next turn. The following turn everyone who didn't have to head west to kill a flyer is heading back towards the center of the map as fast as possible to get on an intercept course with the last sets of flyers. On the normal move turn I send Felica with a Corrin attack stance to bait in the kinshi who were north of the lake, the majority of my army in the center of the map kills one of those that spawned south of the lake and freezes the other because killing it would put more targets in range of the Kinshis (and enough of my units are only just reaching this staging area that I can't pull off any shelter shenanigans), and I try to pull some of the southern reinforcements (while they move towards me none take the oppotunity to attack. Felicia takes a hard hit, but can finish the Kinshi on player phase, and thanks to the power of Crecent bow attack stance and a well placed Niles both before and after moving, the rest of my army manages to finish the rest of the flyers off despite the movement penalty. Now for Hinoka's last stronghold. I start by sending Felicia, Ophelia, Niles, and Elise to wipe out the units that can move quiet comfortably, and make sure there are a few allies nearby to help the, escape kinshi range next turn as I let Hinoka keep her Dragon Vein use active to lure a Kinshi into suicide by Niles without having to worry about the Oni that spawned. Next turn I activate the last dragon vein and kill off the rest of the Kinshi and Oni. With the winds in my favor arranging comfortable kills of the other flyers that spawn is fairly easy. Azama's death occurs and now I have to figure out how to deal with Hinoka. With a strength rally (in retrospect the Corrin debuffing would have been enough to have Effie one shot, but the strength rally comes with the defense rally anyway) Effie is able to one shot her with the effective damage of the Beast Killer, and after a skill rally, debuffing from Corrin, attack stance from an A support Corrin, and supportive she has a hitrate in the high 70%, and with armored blow Effie only takes damage is on Luna procs, First try Effie misses and Hinoka only gets one Luna proc, so I shelter Corrin, dance Effie, shelter Azura, seperate them heal up wait for the guard gauge to fall and try again. The second try does it for the win. In retrospect I could have used heart seeker to push the hit-rate further, but if I still had a miss I would be too committed to salvage the run like I did. Also of note everyone has their level 35 skill by the end of this chapter. I am on the verge of finishing Ryoma too, I have strats down for each side, I just need to combine them in a run, buy healing items for Corrin, and safely kill Ryoma.  Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starburst Posted March 5, 2019 Author Share Posted March 5, 2019 (edited) 13 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said: Part 7: Shelter Shenanigans Ch 23-24 Ch 23: I did the same against Hinata's gang! The Ranged Attack + Azura + Double Shelter sequence also works when attacking from the front (the only path with no flight.)While I have not tried it with pure Attack Stance, on Hard ten units can sustain an EP against Hinata's gang and then wipe them in the following phase. And this is why I found the Double Shelter sequence cheap. On Lunatic however, I could not find a way to kill them all or to sustain a phase, not with my ten units at least. And I tried this five or six times before realising that my units may simply not be bulky enough to achieve it. Since I had no fliers, I had to face all southern enemies to advance.As I mentioned when we talked about tonics, a heavily drugged Sniper Effie with Hero Silas in Guard Stance and Azura's boost tanked all Snipers north of the lake. At some point, it was equally important for her survival to dodge one attack and not to land multiple crits (and thus fail to fill the Guarding Bar.) The rest of the party took on the group and reinforcements south of the lake. After eliminating Hinata's gang, I marched east but left two units on the main door to block further reinforcements. Since the Basara group around the ballista was able to target Resistance, it was actually trickier than Rally Man's team. The Master of Arms patrol is rather easy with bows and tomes, which my party was good at. When I was about to take on the roof, I faced a difficult dilemma: Taking the western stairs was suicidal even to my bulkiest front-liner, and removing a Basara from an eastern stair would leave me with less Entrap charges for Ch 25 (and I had planned my budget and strategy around it.) In the end, my fear of Ch 25 prevailed [1] and I decided to find a way to assault the roof through the western stairs. I did not have many options: it was either Noble Cornflakes or Hero Silas. The former had an edge because she was faster, had reliable 1-2 attacks and would de-buff all enemies. The numbers told me that she would not survive an Enemy Phase, and even if she did, the Lunge Lancers would block the stairs. Now, I had been saving a Rescue staff for Endgame, I was not sure what my strategy would be, but just in case. I decided to use it here and focus on the Lunge Lancers. I would go in, try to kill one Lunge Lancer at a time and let Elise Rescue Cornflakes. There would still be one Lunge Lancer alive and all the fucking Basaras and Snipers, but I had to take my chances. After the Rescue Infiltration, I separated all my units and prepared for a full-on charge to kill as many enemies as possible on a single phase. I was not easy with only two mounted units, and I must say it was more about faith than maths, but the party survived and got ready for Oboro's team. Honestly, Oboro's team and Taco Meat were way easier than anything before them. [1] And Entrap was all in vain! Ha ha ha.https://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?/topic/86015-what-is-your-strategy-for-conquest-ch-25/&tab=comments#comment-5392413https://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?/topic/86015-what-is-your-strategy-for-conquest-ch-25/&tab=comments#comment-5392646 Edited March 5, 2019 by starburst Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tolvir Posted March 5, 2019 Share Posted March 5, 2019 (edited) Sounds like an interesting challenge run, I might give it a go. Ive been looking to go back and play various FE games with 3H around the corner, and would like to spice up Fates, Awakening, and SoV specifically with some challenge runs considering how much Ive played them. Not sure who I will use yet, Ill have to come up with that. Edited March 5, 2019 by Tolvir Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starburst Posted March 5, 2019 Author Share Posted March 5, 2019 1 hour ago, Tolvir said: Sounds like an interesting challenge run, I might give it a go. Ive been looking to go back and play various FE games with 3H around the corner, and would like to spice up Fates Great, mate. You are welcome. If you prefer, you can do it on Hard instead of Lunatic and see how it goes. I described my 'rules' on the very first post, but feel free to ask questions or spice them up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tolvir Posted March 6, 2019 Share Posted March 6, 2019 1 hour ago, starburst said: Great, mate. You are welcome. If you prefer, you can do it on Hard instead of Lunatic and see how it goes. I described my 'rules' on the very first post, but feel free to ask questions or spice them up. Yeah I looked over it. I’m altering it a bit by having some people choose the units I’m using lol.  I may try going for it on a Lunatic but I might drop down to Hard depending. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starburst Posted March 6, 2019 Author Share Posted March 6, 2019 (edited) 28 minutes ago, Tolvir said: Yeah I looked over it. I’m altering it a bit by having some people choose the units I’m using lol. I may try going for it on a Lunatic but I might drop down to Hard depending. Sounds fun. Just remind them that Xander, Camilla and specially 'backpacks' are forbidden, so that others do not pick for you a L10/1 Berserker Charlotte or Adventurer Nyx, based only on their bonuses to another main unit. A fair trade-off may be to ask them to suggest 15-20 units and classes, and then pick a more balanced party exclusively from that set. For you will need a couple of units to fulfil some tasks and meet certain thresholds (specially defensive ones on Lunatic.) I seriously doubt that, say, ten Wyverns or ten Adventurers can complete the game; not even on Hard. At least I would not be able to do it. Edited March 6, 2019 by starburst Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eltosian Kadath Posted March 14, 2019 Share Posted March 14, 2019  On 3/5/2019 at 9:29 AM, starburst said: When I was about to take on the roof, I faced a difficult dilemma: Taking the western stairs was suicidal even to my bulkiest front-liner, and removing a Basara from an eastern stair would leave me with less Entrap charges for Ch 25 (and I had planned my budget and strategy around it.) In the end, my fear of Ch 25 prevailed [1] and I decided to find a way to assault the roof through the western stairs. I did not have many options: it was either Noble Cornflakes or Hero Silas. The former had an edge because she was faster, had reliable 1-2 attacks and would de-buff all enemies. The numbers told me that she would not survive an Enemy Phase, and even if she did, the Lunge Lancers would block the stairs. Now, I had been saving a Rescue staff for Endgame, I was not sure what my strategy would be, but just in case. I decided to use it here and focus on the Lunge Lancers. I would go in, try to kill one Lunge Lancer at a time and let Elise Rescue Cornflakes. There would still be one Lunge Lancer alive and all the fucking Basaras and Snipers, but I had to take my chances. After the Rescue Infiltration, I separated all my units and prepared for a full-on charge to kill as many enemies as possible on a single phase. I was not easy with only two mounted units, and I must say it was more about faith than maths, but the party survived and got ready for Oboro's team. That is costly as Rescue staff uses are the only way I have even gotten close to clearing end game with so few troops (then again defense stance may make survival on some parts easier). That roof really costs quality staffs to survive it seems. On 3/5/2019 at 12:59 PM, Tolvir said: Sounds like an interesting challenge run, I might give it a go. Ive been looking to go back and play various FE games with 3H around the corner, and would like to spice up Fates, Awakening, and SoV specifically with some challenge runs considering how much Ive played them. Not sure who I will use yet, Ill have to come up with that. If you are lets playing/streaming/creating a write-up of the run keep us posted. Part 8: Only Endgame Remains ch 25-27 Spoiler Chapter 25- This one is a bit too tricky to split my forces like the last couple maps. I started by working on Kagero's half, and found a way through far easier than I expected, Saizo's half took a bit longer to figure out, but with clever staff use it worked out. The key preps are a meal that adds +1 strength, +2 defense, and +2 speed to males, a defense tonic on Corrin just in case, a strength tonic on Niles to make ninja kills easier to setup, buying a few vulneraries to make sure Corrin stays healthy, and filling Azura's inventory with exotic staffs to be the faux convoy for this map. I start with Kagero's side as it was the first I figured out, and after clearing Saizo's half my attempts to use Camaraderie to make Corrin invincible ended up leaving my army just unpowered enough to fail the Kagero's half, and it showed it to be a little dicier in a few places. I strat by having Niles lure the ninjas from the second room on Kagero's route (as the man-at-arms and ninjas in the first are more reluctant to act), and spend a few turns luring out and killing them until he starts baiting the ninjas from the back of the first room, that finally convinces them to move and attack people that are in their ranges. After finishing them I must face the corridor of death, and my first step is to rile up the troops clogging up the corridor by using Effie's Armored blow to chip one without taking damage, shelter her with Peri and dance them with Azura (and then use more shelter dancer shenanigans to get her out of Spy shuriken range), and separate Effie and Peri in such a way that they choke the furthest point Effie can, while Peri equips a sword and lures the further out sword catcher man-at-arms to convince the ninja to use its spy shuriken to get his effective attack stance on Peri instead of wrecking Effie with his doubling silver shuriken. After dealing with these I need to lure the spy shurikens from the two rooms into spaces they can be killed, and Nile's shuriken breaker is the way to go. The western one requires a lot of defensive boosts to prevent the Great club wielding man-at-arms frequent attack stance crits, but after luring one individually to the right place, Niles can one round it and be sheltered and danced to safety and healed up to lure the other side. After the spy shuriken are dealt with I break the eastern wall (and dance them to keep from being attacked from the other room and get more power into the eastern room) but there is enough difficulty reaching and hittting that last ninja in the east that I have to take an enemy phase from it. After the east is dealt with the western room is easier to deal with due to the extra space in the eastern room to stage attacking troops in. After that Niles lures out the ninja's from Kagero's room and we steam roll the rest of that side and grab the gold. The long trek back to the center gets me close to the 20 turn mark so during most of Saizo's half Corrin is dragon tanking Ryoma and chugging vulneraries whenever he has more than 10 lost health. The first step on Saizo's half is to enemy phase the three ninjas in the first room with Niles. Next turn I give Silas all the rallys, the dance boost, and station Elise on the stairs in the corner to help him tank the 2 ninja and 1 swordmaster just to the west of the door to the next room with a Javalin to chip as he will be double anyway after the first ninja debuff (and they always double him). If the enemy sets up their attack stances right he needs one aegis proc to live, but with 30 skill and how many shuriken hits he is taking I have never seen him fall here, but he is debuffed to point of incompetence. After surviving that we wipe away this group on player phase. The next step is to wipe out the ninja in the western most corridor (and shelter them out of the lunge blender range) and entrap the further of the two lungers in that next room (with Ophelia pair-up and skill rally or dance boost Elise gets over 90% accuracy with the entrap), and wipe it out. Next I break the wall and use shelter and dancing stats to leave only Effie at the furthest point of the nearest lungers range, with only a Life and Death swordmaster's attack stance to worry about she should be fine, and both can be killed relatively safely. Next I use Calamity gate to lure the ninja with the room into a range battle and after they are dead I lure the two sword masters between that next room and Saizo's room into death range. The pair-up sword masters have yet to move, so I pump enough range attacks into them (plus one final melee attack stance) to finish them without entering the next lunging range (and then loot the chest). I then use another entrap to kill the nearest lunger and prepare for the final assault. With as many cavalry as I can station outside lunger range, and a freeze staff on the sword master for safty (and shelter Felicia with the still slightly debuffed Silas) I lure in the lunger with Niles, and the ninja do not bother to attack him, after that I just push enough cavalry into Saizos room to finish his 3 defenders and the lunger. Saizo falls easily just as Corrin is two uses into his second vulnerary. I end up using Beruka's dual club swordbreaker combo to deal with Ryoma, but Corrin still has to tank 2 hit after the floor changes before he falls. Chapter 26 - Lets start with the preps, we have a +1 strength, +1 defense, +1 luck meal for all Nohrians, a strength tonic on Effie to break doors with Javalins, and magic tonic on Ophelia to let her one round stoneborns with lightning before leveling. The first step is to have Effie break the door and use shelter and ancingg strats to drag everyone out of Hexing rod range. The 4 heroes are charging so I have Effie and Silas hold the chokepoints created by the torchs, and have Beruka's dual club swordbreaker combo to lure in some of the wyrmslayers and block off an extra space in the back of the room. After surviving that they are no longer protected by the hexing rod and we wipe them out on player phase. Next I use Niles to kill the hexing rod on one of Iago's silence staff turns, and try to shelter staff everyone to safety, but Effie has to be left in both Iago's staff range and a Hero's range. This draws in the last of the Hero's who die on the turn after as I do not want to have to deal with staffs. The next silence staff turn is the next time to act as Effie Javalin's the door to the eternal stairway part 2: curse of the eternal staff, and Peri trades equips her a blessed lance to enemy phase the first faceless, and everyone piles in behind those two to get past Iago's staff range next turn & Ophelia gets danced to avoid Iago's silence and hide just north of Effie. Next turn the other faceless dies, Ophelia lightning kills the stoneborn (thankfully those inside the next room do not move til the door opens) and get everyone outside Iago's staff range and the non moving stoneborn range. The next phase was such a delicate maneuver that I had to map it out on paper, The big things are Corrin uses 2 turns to Dragoon hex debuff the 2 nearest stoneborn from their range before we start the maneuver (to prevent the scenario that they set up their attack order right with the 2 poisoners striking first and have all the stone born hit Corrin they could kill him). On a Iago freeze turn, first Beruka rally's everyone that will stay in stone born range, Corrin blocks the stoneborn reinforcement and ensure that 3 of the stoneborn will head north and be 2 turns behind the charge of faceless, Effie Javalin's open the door, Silas shelters her, Azura dances Silas, Peri shelters Azura, Niles transfers then swaps to let Azura dance Peri, Felicia transfer Niles away from Azura switches and seperates such that Niles could possibly receive 2 debuffed stoneborn hits with demoiselle plus Inspiration plus defense rally boost, and Felicia could face one with lilypoise, inspiration, defense rally boost. Peri goes back a few spaces and shelter Azura again (Peri's final position has potentially 2 debuffed stoneborn hits with defense rally plus inspiration boost), then Opheila trasnfers and seperates Azura to safety leaving her in range of 1 debuffed stoneborn hit with defense rally and horse spirit. With only Niles in stoneborn kill range (and only if the poisoner acts first, and both him despite his effective 77 avoid with supports, but make a note to give him a defense or health tonic if I reset), they split their fire anyway, and next turn we flee through Iago's silence staff and the following turn back to the starting room to prepare my defense. The first step is to draw the only stoneborn that is keeping pace to enter the nearest space he can killed from range inside the room, and them killing him with Ophelia. With that dealt with I use Effies to enemy phase 2 of them with the blessed lance with solid attack stance and some defensive buffs, and then finish the rest off on player phase. I bait another Stoneborn into a ranged Ophelia death (with sheltering strats afterward to keep people alive), the rest die to my team dog piling them. To deal with the entrap staff in the corner, I get enough cavalry to the other side of her range that I can slay the door the staff and the faceless on one player phase, while starting outside staff range. The next step is to breakdown the door to the berserker and general room. I know reinforcements are coming, but much to my frustration, despite a thorough searching of youtube I cannot find any footage of anyone taking this route on lunatic conquest, so I have to rely on questionably accurate wiki descriptions for what is spawning where and for how long. I split my forces, Effie the master of unlocking, the shelterers Silas and Peri, Azura the dancer, and Felicia in case I need healing will breakdown the doors while the rest wait to ambush reinforcements. The entire reason I took this route is to take advantage of the difference in enemy movement rates to create a comfortable gap between the berserkers and generals. I start by breaking the door on an Iago hexing rod turn, and shelter start everyone out of freeze range. Next turn my team to deal with reinforcements wipes out the 3 faceless and stoneborn that spawned near the northern stairs, while the door breakers are fleeing (and drawing an enfeeble staff as the outpace the enemy). Next turn is a little tight for spacing as my whole team re brought back together and avoid the range of the enemies from the south (including 3 new faceless and a stoneborn from the stairs near the middle) and Iago's freeze range. Finally we flee through the silence staff use and the following turn reach the safety of the starting area, and its lack of staffs. As the enemies approach I lure the stoneborn into that same nearest space so many have died at this chapter, and freeze the general that sarted near the healers to let him join the other generals. As the group is partway into Iago's range I bait the lead berserker with a Tomahawk to die to Felicia's flame shuriken (with a Corrin attack stance, plus defense rally for survival), and the next turn I bait in the next berserker into an enemy phase death to Corrin's dragon stone with a solid magic attack stance, before finishing off the other 3 Berserkers and 3 faceless on player phase. Dealing with the generals takes a bit longer as I trick those with range into dying from the other side of a wall with a defensive lure, and magic range plus dance and/or shelter on player phase. The generals die before too long. I have saved the last entrap staff for Hans, and with it he is trivial to defeat (although I save a shelter use to pull Elise out of the range of enemies on the other side of a wall that she entered to entrap Hans). Hans friends charge and are easily dispatched, and with 2 Berserker and General reinforcements I almost take them in the faceless/stoneborn room, but end up playing it safe by returning to the chamber in which I do not have to worry about staffs just in case. With everything else I have to deal with immobile the rest is easy, although I do bait in two of the mages into range battle into Iago's room to cap my last units level (plus I needed time to loot the room anyway), until seizing with an entirely cap level party. Chapter 27 - For preps I have Peri take a luck tonic for crit avoid, Effie take a skill and luck tonic for accuracy, and give Corrin and Ophelia tonics for any stat relevant to the Garon fight (just in case). I also use arm scroll to get Ophelia with S magic, and Felicia with S staffs. I have Silas paired up with Effie with Azura next to them start in the Sword master's room, I have Ophelia and Peri start in the spear master's room, with the rest starting on the outskirts of the southern starting area. First Effie drops Silas next to the pillars, then Azura dances her, and Effie tanks chokes the point just outside the door where both sword masters can target her. Ophelia kills the lone spear master with Calamity gate, while Peri just sits next to her. Corrin rides with Niles into the Sorcerer's room entrance, while Felicia hitches a ride with Beruka into the Ninja's room entrance, with Elise just behind them. This leaves no one targetable by the entraps, Effie takes negligible damage, and Peri has a chance of crit death. This is the diciest turn as Effie has to hit a lot with her brave lance, and depending on the circumstances the accuracy could be between 66-86, as generally Effie kills 2 with a brave lance, and Silas kills one with a javelin plus Effie's brave lance attack stance (the exact details of how this plays out are a bit variable based on whether Effie hit both enemies, if she proced Luna on any of them, and what space the healer moved to). Note that all three sword masters must die and all three allies must be fully in the room or the mobile group will turn one of them to swiss cheese. Ophelia then uses Excalibur to kill the paired-up one, then Peri trade switches her weapon to the Calamity gate and chugs a Concoctions (note if Ophelia misses either of 86 hits on the Excalibur it isn't game over just yet, next turn Ophelia kills the healer with Calamity gate, Peri gets out of range heals with concoction and Blessed lance and we whittle them down more slowly and have a close call with the mobile group as we finish it off). Then Niles enters the Sorcerer's range with Corrin attack stance, and Beruka uses a handaxe and lilypoise inspiration boost to get the ninja to move forward without bothering to attack. Next turn Azura pairs-up with Silas, so that Silas and Effie can escape the mobile groups range by hiding on the stairs and now open door space. Ophelia finishes the last spear master with Calamity gate, Corrin kills the Sorceror if it lived, the Niles kills the first entrapper. Beruka hits the ninja with a brave axe, and Felicia finishes with the flame shuriken, and Elise kills the entrapper (note that if Beruka misses one of her 71%s Felicia needs both her attack stance hits to finish, and if that fails Elise will need to Physic to keep things from going south). Next turn Silas and Effie flee to Ninja room while Ophelia and waits a little to bait some of the mobile group before fleeing to sorcerer room. Then there is a little waiting as the Berserker and Sniper approach the two southern rooms with their entrappers following. To make things slightly faster I bait the sniper into attacking Corrin, and the turn following kill him with Corrin while Felicia with attack stance (plus Elise if Felicia misses) kills the Berserker, and then Azura (possibly after sheltering Felicia out of the way) dance Elise to kill the Berserker's entrapper, leaving her as the only target for the other to waste its entrap on, and with her easily able to escape danger, I then turn my attantion to Garon. Corrin and Ophelia together remove Garon easily leading to endgame. I have tried endgame a few times, and have gotten kinda close so this might be doable (maybe) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starburst Posted March 15, 2019 Author Share Posted March 15, 2019 23 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said: Part 8: Only Endgame Remains ch 25-27 Man, I would love to watch a video of your play-through in chapters 25 and 26. Not hat I doubt of you or that your messages are confusing, but I would really like the see a lot of numbers. I am utterly and constantly amazed by how much damage your units can endure without Guard Stance. Either I am not building my units correctly or I have been over cautious all along. Many of your moves seem suicidal for my usual teams, and yet you do it. It is incredible, mate. Chapter 25: I grabbed Tit's gold and killed Ryoma two turns later. As I previously mentioned, my +Mag Noble Corrin had no chance to tank Ryoma for enough time to let the rest of the party kill both Saizo and Tits. However, and to my great surprise, that same Corrin was powerful enough to reliably kill Ryoma in a couple of phases with Mjölnir. The key was Heartseeker (and a bunch of narcotics) against a static Ryoma before turn 20. I chose the gold, defeated Tits in about twelve turns and then faced Ryoma without visiting Saizo (how rude.) What I did differently on the eastern side: - In Turn 1 it is possible to kill both Master of Arms (reachable by infantry) and the MN in the south hall (requires one dance) and bait all the MN's in both passages (who will now attack whomever is in range.) - If Elise Entraps both Spy-MN's, the nasty corridor is infinitely easier. She can also Freeze the Great-MoA at will. I did not face the western side this time, but we tackle it in almost the exact same way. Yet, I did not have a Shuriken Breaker unit and thus the MN's would never ignore my units. As the honourable woman that she is, my Cornflakes is always the one to defeat Ryoma. (I do heal her and give her a Guard Stance, though.)  On 13/3/2019 at 10:22 PM, Eltosian Kadath said: [...] while Peri equips a sword and lures the further out sword catcher man-at-arms to convince the ninja to use its spy shuriken to get his effective attack stance on Peri instead of wrecking Effie with his doubling silver shuriken. I have never tried this manipulation. Seems very handy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starburst Posted March 21, 2019 Author Share Posted March 21, 2019 I finally decided to use the Switch that I purchased last May (seriously) and did not log in earlier. Â On 13/3/2019 at 10:22 PM, Eltosian Kadath said: The entire reason I took this route is to take advantage of the difference in enemy movement rates to create a comfortable gap between the berserkers and generals. Ch 26: We choose different corridors. I always, always face the eastern one. I still cannot decide whether your take on Ch 25 or yours on Ch 26 shocks me the most. I find the Sorcerers way easier than the Stoneborn. I do kill the latter on Hard, but only after having dealt with Iago and his Beserker and General army first. I have to try your approach to asses the movement difference of Generals and Berserkers when facing the room from one side or the other. On my last campaign, I chose the eastern corridor, being careful about the Hex Rod and blocking most reinforcements. When entering the southern room, I sustained one or two phases and then retreated to the corridor in a step position, so that Elise's aura and Inspiration benefit both tanking pairs (Noble Corrin with Sor Odin, Hero Silas with Pal Sophie) and both second-row units (Sor Ophelia, Sni Mozu) at the same time, while Azura's auras could also benefit the squishier column. | Az | | Op El | | Co Mo | | Si | __| | | __________| The retreat gave me some turns until the Berserkers reached my uneven barricade. Afterwards I faced Hans, his guards and the reinforcements, all in Attack Stance. It is key to wipe them all in a single Player Phase. Â Ch 27: Rush and teleportation! Does your approach change when you use Guard Stance? For I just pair up my units in "mixed, balanced" pairs (say, a physical fighter with a magic bomb, an independent unit like Corrin with a dependent one like Azura, etcetera), let them all be Entrapped to any room, kill the one guard and the rush against Garon (killed by Turn 4 or 5.) In my experience, the trickiest guard is the Master Ninja, for only a Berserker or a Sniper can one-hit it, and it can kill any unit in two phases, after its annoying de-buffs. Since Entrap seems to always avoid Sorcerer Odin and Strategist Elise (because of their Luck?, because of their overall low stats's sum?), I just move them towards the Master Ninja Room to help the teleported pair. All other guards are one-hit or one-rounded, no matter my party composition. Since all the enemies in the corridor rush to the south and let Garon alone, I simply use the now-open passages and rush towards him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eltosian Kadath Posted March 22, 2019 Share Posted March 22, 2019 On 3/14/2019 at 7:26 PM, starburst said: Man, I would love to watch a video of your play-through in chapters 25 and 26. Not hat I doubt of you or that your messages are confusing, but I would really like the see a lot of numbers. I do still have a save before chapters 25 & 26, but I have never done any gameplay recordings before, and the only recording device I have at the moment would be my phone so it would be potato quality at best. If I find time this weekend I might try it. Â On 3/14/2019 at 7:26 PM, starburst said: I am utterly and constantly amazed by how much damage your units can endure without Guard Stance. Either I am not building my units correctly or I have been over cautious all along. Many of your moves seem suicidal for my usual teams, and yet you do it. It is incredible, mate. I doubt my builds are better than yours, the only troops to leave their starting class lines were Corrin and Beruka, and only long enough to get a lv25 skill. Although there are few difference I will note about our teams that make mine a little tankier. First I had a wyvern lord, and thus defense rally, which is an easy way to add physical bulk. Speed boon Corrin's ability to avoid being doubling really helped his bulk, for example being able to equip the dragonstone + with its +9 defense without having to take a second hit from Ryoma is what let him tank for so long. Additionally it sounds like you tend not to have many weapon breaker skills in your team, and the three I had each saw vital use keeping my team alive. When you start piling up the buffs you can become remarkably tanky, lily poise reduces by 3, inspiration by 2, supportive/devoted partner by 2, defense/resistance rally adds 4, demoisell by 2 for males (so 11 damage reduction on females and 13 on males), and in some rare cases you might even be able to use Azura's buffs as well to add an extra 4. On 3/14/2019 at 7:26 PM, starburst said: I have never tried this manipulation. Seems very handy. Having her equip a sword consistently gets the ninja to target her (and thus keep the enemy from concentrating fire to kill anyone), but it doesn't always convince them to arrange this specific attack stance. 1 hour ago, starburst said: I find the Sorcerers way easier than the Stoneborn. I do kill the latter on Hard, but only after having dealt with Iago and his Beserker and General army first. I have to try your approach to asses the movement difference of Generals and Berserkers when facing the room from one side or the other. I think I will agree that the Sorcerers are easier to deal with, but it made it a lot easier to deal with the Berserker and General Army. The amount of effective weaponry was a major concern for my team (5 vulnerable to beast killers and 2 of those vulnerable to hammers as well), so being able to deal with one group on player phase without having to worry about retaliation from the other made that far more manageable (although I did have to retreat pretty far to widen that gap) 1 hour ago, starburst said: Does your approach change when you use Guard Stance? With guard stance I would have taken an approach like yours, without it there is that chance of being entrapped by something you can't deal with alone, and I just wanted to avoid that even if it doubles the turn count doing so (9-10 is the usual turn count for the strategy described). Â 1 hour ago, starburst said: Since Entrap seems to always avoid Sorcerer Odin and Strategist Elise (because of their Luck?, because of their overall low stats's sum?), My guess is that this is due to their staff avoid (res *3/2 + luck*1/2) being significantly higher than the rest of your group, but that is just a guess. Â I have finally done it, the price was high but a narrow victory was had. Part 9 The Bitter Price of Victory (Endgame) Spoiler The preps are as extreme as can be, every stat is boosted by tonics on everyone (except magic on physical troops and strength on magical troops and neither on Azura), I make sure Elise and Felicia both have a full rescue staff, with a Mend and Fortify on Elise, with Bifrost, Silence, and Physic on Felicia. To avoid mentioning it too much I activated a dragon vein before every map hit. First turn I silence the nearest enfeeble and lure in the two nearest Oni with Ophelia boosted by horse spirit, defense rally, and inspiration (any more buffs and the one that has to use magic will not target her and die enemy phase, although the one axe hit hurts a lot). Next turn I silence the middle enfeeble, finish off the last 2 Oni, kill 2 of the Onmyoji to the east (and block the path despite them having to take a Takumi wave) with Felicia (who was danced) and Elise. Corrin with dragon stone+ and Beruka with sword breaker dual club block off the sword wielding Heroes to the west (despite the Takumi wave and dealing enough chip to the nearest that he dies enemy phase). Next turn we finish off the blocked off units and use the first fortify, while Niles kills the middle enfeebler (relying on shuriken breaker to survive the Ninja retaliation), silence the eastern enfeebler and positioning troops to the east for future turns. Next turn Ophelia kills one of the Ninja with Calamity gate + Niles Crecent bow attack stance, and Niles finishes the other with the Crecent bow. Ophelia is currently baiting the paladins and malig knights, and with the western enffeble plus one of the far southern ones there is no way for her to survive (but she does take one of the Malig knights with her). Bifrost thankfully clears her debuffs, but to kill the Paladin and Malig Knight that are further behind, Effie and Peri have to enter the range of the four paired horsemen of the apocalypse and die enemy phase; the other Paladin is close enough to die from range, while Beruka and Silas block off the faceless that have spawned to the east, and the final fortify gets used to try and hold the team together for one more turn. Next turn I use Beruka to rally Corrin and Ophelia, Ophelia pairs with Corrin; Niles is used to block up space to let Felicia Rescue the Corrin Ophelia combo to a specific square, as Elise moves as far as she can, Rescues Azura, gets danced, then rescues Corrin from a choke point who moves adjacent to Takumi and drops the horse spirit equipped Ophelia next to him. Enemy phase is not pretty as with double enfeeble and hexing rod Corrin no longer doubles and survives Takumi's hits with only 2 hp left (the Takumi wave damage barely matters due to the hexing rod). Elise dies blocking the one space choke point in the east, Azura dies, Silas dies, Beruka dies, Felica miraculously lives (the +20 avoid from the S rank support with Niles is the only reason she could dodge, so true love for the win I guess) and manages to block the space they would use to finish off Niles. With the damage Takumi has taken and the dragon hex debuff, Ophelia finishes Takumi off with the quad lightning hit (with bow breaker keeping him from slaughtering her, one hit gets shield blocked but with attack stances somehow working on him it is just enough). Corrin, Ophelia, Felicia, and Niles survive, although barely. Â Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.